Design review: The Central District’s Acer House and its Afrofuturist plans at 23rd and Cherry

(Image: CHS)

Imagine this: five-and-a-half stories of apartments in an Afrofuturist design on 23rd and Cherry with thousands of square feet of childcare and other retail spaces with a public courtyard. Of the 120 apartments, which range in size from about 400-square-foot studios to two-bedroom units between 700 and 800, 30% would be reserved for low-income residents.

Thursday night, the proposed Acer House project will move forward with its first pass through the Seattle design review process:


2210 E Cherry St

Design Review Early Design Guidance for a 5-story, 120-unit apartment building with 4 live-work units, childcare, and retail. No parking proposed. Project relies on a contract rezone. View Design Proposal  (23 MB)    

Review Meeting: June 10, 2021 5:00 PM

Meeting: https://bit.ly/Mtg3037717 Listen Line: 206-207-1700 Passcode: 187 663 1617
Comment Sign Up: https://bit.ly/Comments3037717

Review Phase: EDG–Early Design Guidance

Project Number: 3037717  View Related Records

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Planner: David Sachs — Email comments to [email protected]


Kateesha Atterberry, founder of the Urban Black commercial property management firm working on the development, says the team wants a childcare provider focused on “Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics.” Commercial spaces will likely include the existing Flowers Just 4 U, which might be the only Black-owned florist in the Pacific Northwest, with Atterberry saying she would additionally like to see a recording studio and other artists in the five micro retail spaces for small businesses.

On top of the housing affordability, Atterberry also hopes the project, known as Acer House, can be commercially affordable.

“Creating vibrant communities where businesses can thrive and contribute to the local economy is dependent upon them being able to afford the spaces they are in,” Atterberry told CHS in an email. “Our goal is to provide affordable leasing terms and access to resources for additional support. We believe in partnering with businesses to ensure their success because their success is our success.” Continue reading

Amid city’s sweeps and a continuing crisis, Seattle mayoral candidates on homelessness: Guaranteed basic income, more public housing, ’emergency’ rental assistance, and ‘Compassion Seattle’

Guaranteed basic income for 16,000 Seattle families. A new income tax to fund a new housing Public Development Authority. An expansion of emergency rental assistance. Juicing federal dollars for all their worth.

These were just a few of the solutions floated by Seattle top mayoral candidates at a forum on the homelessness crisis last week hosted by We Are In, a local advocacy organization.

“Compassion Seattle”
One of the central questions of this race is where the candidates stand on a proposed new amendment to the city charter to spend more money on housing and public services and require that public spaces like parks be kept clear of homeless encampments.

Former Seattle City Council president Bruce Harrell said he supports it, but concedes it isn’t perfect. SEED Seattle’s Lance Randall said there are “a lot of things that need to be worked out,” but notes it puts pressure on city leaders to act.

On the other side, Capitol Hill architect Andrew Grant Houston said he was “vehemently” opposed to the amendment, saying “I am not interested in an attempt to legalize sweeps” and that the campaign in favor of it, “Compassion Seattle,” did not consult the Lived Experience Coalition, which is made up of homeless and formerly homeless people. Continue reading

Seattle City Council Pos. 9 candidates square off in forum over homelessness, the environment, and defunding SPD

Candidates for the open Position 9 citywide seat on the Seattle City Council talked homelessness, climate change, and policing in a forum hosted by the 43rd District Democrats Thursday evening as the campaigns race with two months until the primary.

Council President Lorena González’s bid for mayor has opened up this citywide seat.

One of those candidates, Brianna Thomas, has worked in González’s office since 2015 and ran for council that year to represent West Seattle and Delridge before placing fourth in the primary with about 10% of the vote.

Nikkita Oliver, who has been a fixture in the push to defund the police department and ran for mayor in 2017, might be the candidate looking to most radically upend the status quo.

Sara Nelson, the co-owner of Fremont Brewing who ran for a citywide council seat in 2017 but finished third in that primary, would likely be a more moderate voice on the council. She has previously voiced opposition to the JumpStart tax on big businesses passed last year and defunding the police.

The only candidate to have never run for public office before who participated in Thursday’s forum was Corey Eichner, a Seattle high school administrator.

Oliver, whose pronouns are they/them, called for an end to sweeps of homeless encampments and for “radical accessibility” in Seattle parks, which would include mental health support, access to housing, handwashing and shower stations, and sewage and trash support.

They also posed several short-term solutions to the city’s homelessness crisis, including tiny houses and hotels as temporary shelter, instead of “traumatizing” congregate shelters. Continue reading

Think Pete Holmes is ‘soft on crime?’ What if Seattle had an abolitionist City Attorney?

(Image: ntk4justice.com)

Nicole Thomas-Kennedy knew the criminal justice system disadvantaged people of color and poor Seattleites, but she was still shocked when she saw this on display after becoming a public defender.

Thomas-Kennedy, who worked as a public defender for four years before opening her own firm last year, would represent a person of color experiencing mental health issues who didn’t have much support, for example. They would live in supportive housing with services and then get arrested for a misdemeanor; something as simple as stealing socks from Goodwill.

If they don’t come back to that housing for 60 days, they could lose it, but there’s nothing they can do if they’re in jail, she says.

Case workers would call Thomas-Kennedy begging her to get their client out of jail so the individual wouldn’t have to give up housing they’d worked so hard to get: “To have them lose it would be to start all over again and rob that person of the services that were there, of the stability that’s there. It was absurd how much money was spent on doing something that was so the opposite of anything that would help. And that’s not an isolated example, that stuff is over and over and over again.”

“It’s just an avalanche of shit,” Thomas-Kennedy told CHS Saturday. Continue reading

13 things CHS heard at Thursday’s mayoral forum on homelessness

Seattle’s longest running crisis is homelessness, with the city issuing a state of emergency back in 2015. King County’s annual point-in-time count continued to show a persistent homelessness crisis last year with 11,751 individuals experiencing homelessness on one night in late January 2020, a 5% increase from the previous year but still below the 12,112 counted in 2018. Among those, 53% were sheltered and 47% unsheltered, the same as 2017 and 2019.

This was the context for a Thursday afternoon forum with seven of the candidates to be Seattle’s next mayor hosted by Resolution to End Homelessness. All of the participating candidates said in a Wednesday forum that the biggest issue facing the city was some variation of homelessness, affordability, and inequity.

Here are 13 things CHS heard at Thursday’s mayoral forum on homelessness: Continue reading

An early win in a crowded race, González grabs MLK Labor endorsement, talks workers rights in mayor’s office, buses on city streets

City Council president Lorena González overcame recent personal tragedy and scored an expected but important victory Wednesday night in her run for Seattle mayor, winning the endorsement of MLK Labor, the local AFLCIO affiliate representing more than 100 labor organizations in the county.

MLK Labor’s Wednesday night candidates forum kicked off what will be a busy debate season and will hopefully help winnow down the incredibly crowded field of 17 candidates vying to replace Mayor Jenny Durkan, who announced in December she would not seek reelection after one term in office. The top two candidates will move forward from the August primary — now, only three months away.

González participated in the forum as her family recovers following the death of her mother-in-law in a fire last week. González, who has served as a citywide council member since 2015 when she became the first Latina elected to the council, promised her administration would bring a new dedication to labor to the city mayor’s office, promising a deputy mayor specifically dedicated to labor and workforce issues.

The former civil rights attorney and legal counsel in the Ed Murray administration also spoke to voters who depend on public transit to get to work and make their lives in the city. Continue reading

Downsize SPD? Seattle debates new Community Safety and Communications Center to move 911 and parking enforcement operations out of Seattle Police

A Seattle City Council committee will look to take a step Tuesday toward making good on moves made last year to move operations out of the police department after mass protests in the city called for a vast defunding of law enforcement.

The city’s 2021 budget brought a cut of about a fifth of Seattle’s more than $400 million annual outlay in police spending along with changes to reduce the size and power of the department by moving 911 and traffic enforcement operations outside of the Seattle Police Department and spending more money on social, community, and BIPOC services and programs.

Those 911 and parking enforcement positions would officially go into the new Community Safety and Communications Center (CSCC) under a bill coming before the council’s Public Safety and Human Services Committee Tuesday morning. In total, about 260 positions would leave SPD — 140 from the 911 side and 120 on the parking enforcement side.

The 2021 budget, passed in November, originally said the CSCC would begin handling these functions by June 1.

The new center is seen as central to Seattle’s broader reimagining of policing, a conversation largely set off by protests in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and subsequent clashes with police. Continue reading

Seattle sorts out plan for increased vehicle license fees: pedestrian improvements, bridge maintenance, and bicycle safety upgrades

A Seattle City Council committee voted unanimously Wednesday to earmark money from a new increase in the vehicle license fee for pedestrian improvements, bridge maintenance, and bicycle safety upgrades.

The doubling of the vehicle license fee from $20 to $40, passed by the council during the budget process in November, is expected to raise $3.6 million this year and then about $7.2 million annually after that.

The new revenue this year would fund $1.125 million in safety improvements as part of the city’s Vision Zero goal of ending traffic deaths. Another $1.025 million would go toward sidewalk maintenance; $850,000 for bridge rehab; $350,000 for bicycle lanes and other transportation upkeep; and $250,000 to “plan for a future transportation system that addresses our values and goals for equity, safety, and sustainability,” according to the council. Continue reading

What Seattle’s mayoral candidates had to say about the Chauvin verdict and police reform

The conviction of Derek Chauvin for George Floyd’s murder loomed large as mayoral candidates made their elevator pitch to local Democrats Tuesday evening.

Over the past several months, leaders from across Seattle have thrown their hats into the ring to replace Mayor Jenny Durkan, who announced in December she would not seek reelection after one term in office.

Five of the top mayoral candidates met virtually with dozens of 43rd District Democrats to make their two-minute arguments on why they are the right choice to lead the city.

Colleen Echohawk, executive director of the Chief Seattle Club, announced her campaign in January with a proposal to create a new Public Safety Department “with community-based mental health workers and neighborhood liaisons.” She said speaking hours after the Chauvin verdict was handed down was “heavy.”

“I’m certainly happy that the legal system worked today, but this is not justice,” Echohawk said. “My heart is hurting and breaking right now for George Floyd’s family, for other families who have been impacted by the brutality of the police departments around the country.”

She added she was running for mayor to bring “transformational and generational change” to the city and focused on the failure to address the homelessness crisis, work she has been on the frontline of with her organization.

Seattle City Council President Lorena González opened saying the Chauvin conviction was “welcome news, but not the panacea of justice for Black Americans,” adding “this is just the beginning.” Continue reading

‘Social cohesion,’ Seattle Police legitimacy top Capitol Hill, Central District concerns in crime survey

Lack of police capacity, property crime, and homelessness are Seattleites’ top safety concerns, according to a new report, below, by Seattle University researchers. Meanwhile, in the East Precinct covering Capitol Hill and the Central District, fear of crime remained low while concerns about “social cohesion” and the legitimacy of the Seattle Police Department spiked.

The annual survey, released this month by the university’s criminal justice department, includes input from over 11,000 Seattle residents and gives a snapshot of what continues to worry them after a tumultuous 2020 that saw policing and racial justice at the top of the agenda locally and nationally. It also gives an idea of how residents of various neighborhoods feel about issues of public safety in their communities.

“Understanding the public-safety concerns of Seattleites is an important part of the ongoing discussion about the best path forward to support communities of color and to produce equitable outcomes for those who encounter the criminal justice system,” Seattle University researchers wrote in a November op-ed in the Seattle Times promoting the survey.

For example, in Capitol Hill, homelessness trumps police capacity — which includes worries about delays in police response and a lack of law enforcement personnel — followed by property crime. Continue reading